(Published on the legacy Phish.net site many years ago...)

We got to Armstrong about an hour before the show, and there were very few people there. My wife was dressed as a cop, and it was quite a realistic uniform. Page and Fish came by, and Fish asked her if she was a cop or if that was her uniform. Page ended up standing around and talking with us for about 30 minutes. (oh yeah, this was myself, John Friedman, my wife (Lori) and another friend) We told Page we were on the phish.net and that we'd read Shelly's interview, etc.

At break, some of the crew were rounding up folks for the costume contest, and they came and got Lori. They paired her with a dude dressed as a bong!! Trey was doing the contest introductions, and he announced the Cop/Bong as his favorite. They ended up winning, so now Lori can get in free to every Phish show for a year. Too bad she'll probably only get to a couple of shows, but it was neat anyway.

Costumes: Trey had a headband with devil horns. Mike was in a dress. Fish was in a McDonalds employee outfit. Page just had some face paint??

When they came out for set II, there was a woman dressed as Mike holding his bass (he has two of them) in place of Mike. We weren't sure if it was a friend of the bands, or if it was someone who dressed as Mike for their costume. Anyway, they start Landlady, and this person is pretending to play bass while Mike is playing from offstage. She was moving like Mike and did the little swivle hips move with Trey, and it was hilarious.

Trey forgot the last verse in Fee, and as they were repeating the last chorus he stepped up to the mic and said "I was thinking about what the next tune should be, and I forgot the last verse. So what we are going to do is ... Wait". And they went into this goofy Wait tune again.

Overall, I didn't think the show was great. The crowd was very rowdy, and the band was being really goofy. They were having alot of fun, and there were some killer moments, but the show didn't smoke from beginning to end. High points were: Foam, Runaway Jim and Harry Hood. Harry was very very hot, with a long slowly built solo from Trey.

10/31 — Another rough audience recording. Set 1 sounds a bit better than Set 2, but overall, the audio quality leaves a lot to be desired.

After Memories, they kick things off with a rippin’ Brother, launching into a fun, high-energy stretch to start the show. Trey takes a cool little solo during Foam, and YEM delivers another strong jam section. The vocal jam even includes a few “slice of pizza” shout-outs, which adds to the weird charm. Before Jim, Trey tosses out a “bucket of lard” comment, then they close the set with a really introspective version of Jim. Afterward, Trey mentions they’re going to take a break and return with the costume contest.

Set 2 starts with Landlady and segues into a long but entertaining costume contest. Trey keeps the slice of pizza and bucket of lard commentary going — would love to know the backstory there. He teases that Fishman has a costume worth seeing, but the audience will “just have to wait.” That leads into the opening loop of It’s Ice, with the band repeating “wait” over and over while the crowd responds with increasingly loud “No!” chants. Eventually, they launch into a smokin’ Llama, complete with some It’s Ice teasing. After Fee, Trey admits he forgot the last verse and jokes that they’ll just “wait,” bringing back the It’s Ice loop. This time the crowd takes it up a notch, yelling “Fuck you!” in response — hilarious, and maybe a sign people were getting a little annoyed. MSO follows, full of energy, and then another brief Ice loop gets the same profane reaction from the audience. The band uses this chaos to smoothly segue into Bowie, transitioning through shouts of “Wait,” “Hang on,” “Stop,” and “Hold on.” There’s a tape flip during the hi-hat intro, so some music is missing, but the rest of the version is fantastic — tight, concise, and full of fire. Showboat Gertrude delivers a completely over-the-top vacuum solo in I Didn’t Know that bleeds into the final verse. Hood makes for a perfect set closer, with a beautiful midsection and a jam that really delivers. You can feel good about this Hood!

Let’s hope this show gets an official release someday — it’s too wild to be stuck in lo-fi limbo.